Saint John's wort beetle
The Saint John's wort beetle is a little leaf beetle that loves one plant above all: Saint John's wort. It eats the leaves of this plant and lays its eggs on it too. People even use it to stop the plant from spreading too much.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
One female can lay up to 2,000 eggs.
Its larvae come out to eat at night and hide during the day.
When the larvae are big enough, they crawl into the soil to turn into beetles. Two weeks later the new beetles come out.
People in some countries brought it in on purpose, to eat Saint John's wort that was growing where it was not wanted.
Most asked questions about Saint John's wort beetle
?What does the Saint John's wort beetle eat?
The leaves of Saint John's wort and some of its close plant cousins.
?Why do people release Saint John's wort beetles?
To control Saint John's wort in places where the plant spreads too much.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chrysolina hyperici
- Named by
- Forster, 1771
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Chrysomelidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Chrysomelidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Lesser St. John's wort beetle, St. Johnswort beetle, Klamathweed beetle
Where the facts come from
- Chrysolina hyperici (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Francisco Welter-Schultes. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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